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The Queen of Hearts
THE QUEEN OF HEARTS In a trunk in Fanny's room was a pile of letters. One of them fell onto the floor. National Guard Major E. Ray Acton casually picked it up and began to read. "Dear Pal," it said. "Just got a hot flash. As a matter of fact, just heard it myself a few minutes ago, Fanny Bell has had one of her front teeth pulled. Don't you know she looks a sight. I guess it doesn't make a lot of difference. As for myself, it wouldn't matter if she didn't have a tooth in her head. It's that good p of hers I love." There, in an envelope^ was the secret of Fanny Bell Chance's fatal charm for men. She had a popular commodity and she kne\^^ what to do with it to make it most effective. Fanny Bell— Phenix City's original "Queen of Hearts"— came into possession of the letter the way she acquired many things. The man who received it was her sister's husband, a corpora!, who forwarded the letter to Fanny from his station in Germany, He had gotten it from a soldier pal, one of Fanny Bell's several true loves whom she nourished and cherished. Fanny Bell was a woman among women and a woman among men. She knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. She played her part to the hilt and kept the fires of love burning brighriy in a half dozen masculine breasts siniul- taneously. All she asked in return was love and money, both given gladly, passionately, by the Don Juans who shared her bedroom, Fanny Bell was not a ^^^hore, Not in the strictest sense of the word. She didn't sell her charms for cash to a different gent every night. Nor for her was the policy of love 'em and leave 'em. Her credo was love 'em and milk 'em and love 'em Tiiiv Queen of Heabts m and milk 'em. One or two she loved for the simple jov of loving. The voluptuous brunette, who knew how to get her point Hcross, came to Phenix City in late 1950. She said she was twenty-nine, but she was being generous with herself. At least thirty five winters had come and gone since Fanny first breathed the air of this earth. The mark of time was barely visible in the crow's feet iibout the eyes, the slight wrinkle of skin at the elbow, in the meaty section of the upper arm which showed the faintest indication of turning flabby. The girlish figure was with her yet and the slight signs that everyone, even Fanny, will grow old if they live long enough, affected her operations not at all. Financial and social success for a B-girl or prostitute in Mlienix City was unusual. Her income was split too many ways and her charms wore out too soon. By the time a luistler learned all the ropes, the ropes were pretty thin. Not so, Fanny Bell. She went to work as a fourteen dollar ;i week B-girl. She played her cards close to her full bosom. I ler husband, at that time, being a card sharp, had taught her this trick. Fanny's husband when she flounced into Phenix was Patrick Chance, lie was her fourth mate. Thev had been divorced and rc-niarricd, and when they hit Phenix City, Patrick Chance officially was husband Number Five, This state of matri- mony ended on September 10, 1953, but although the bonds v\'hicli had kept tJiem together legally were cast aside, the rwo remained good friends, periodically declaring their un- ilying love one for the other. The fact that Fanny Bell married an Army sergeant on October 1 6, 1953, didn't put an end to her affairs with Chance at all. She didn't plan to give him up entirely. They corresponded regularly, met often, and loved frequently. When Chance had a lucky day at cards, he'd send her money. It would come from Reno and Las Vegas and Miami and Chicago. There were times when he didn't win and 90 Phenix City Fanny Bell would play tumabour by banking him during his dog days. By 1953 Fanny could well afford to do so. She had listened and learned as a B-girl on Fourteenth Street. Her marriage to the sergeant was a step in the direction she had deter- mined to follow. Her boy friend, at the time of the ceremony, was stationed at Fort Benning, After hving with him less than a week, Fanny talked her husband into applying for an assign- ment in Gemiany. She toid him she always had wanted to visit in Europe. What he should do, Fanny instructed, was to get to Germany and make arrangements for her to join him and she would pick up and skedaddle across the ocean to him. Off he went, good trooper that he was. Tliere he re- mained. Fanny Bell stayed behind. Fanny Bell's prime in- terest in her new husband apparently had been the allotment check that would be hers as a dependent of a Gl. The check came to $140 and it came monthly. Within about two years of the marriage, Fanny Bell was minus Husband Number Six, So versatile was the Queen of Hearts that there were times when she was receiving government allotment cliecks from six different soldiers at the same rime. This might constitute fraud againsit Uncle Sam. The soldiers, however, knew what rhey were getting. Fanny Bell's romance with the Army was a continuous affair. The sergeant hadn't been overseas long when the Queen picked up with another soldier who was stationed at Fort Benning. For a period of several months rhey shared the most intimate relations. Fanny signed love letters to him, '*Your funure wife." When they were apart, Fanny wrote she hoped she was pregnant so she could have a little junior by whom to remember him. The GI bought a house in Columbus and deeded it to Fanny, When she traveled to Mississippi, after her position of affluence had reached the proper proportions, the dogface accompanied her. In his turn, the soldier would write fiery love letters to Fanny. He told her he was just an average man who appre- TfiE <^UEEN OF Hearts 91 ciated sex in an average way. I'hen he met Fanny and after that he couldn't ever get sex off his mind. While this great romandc love was transpiring between Fanny and her new friend, she entertained Chance as he came and went from Phenix Ciry, and acquired a new and most helpful suitor, Willis M. (Buddy) Jowers, assistant chief und strong-ann boy of the city police department, Fanny lived with her sister, Betry Jo Thompson, whose husband was in Germany and knew both Fanny's husband :ind Fanny's latesr GI flame, It was through this arrangement tliat Betty Jo*s husband received the letter from his pal at Fon Benning about Fanny's teeth, and forwarded it to Phenix City for Betty jo to show to Fanny. Betty Jo kept her husband advised of Fanny's activities, writing him on one occasion that 'Tanny said to tell you (hat she's now seeing 'Buddy' every day and night, He got Hred." "Buddy" did get fired for poliricking at the polls on elec- tion day, but that did not coine until after he and Fanny had enjoyed each other's company for months. In between times, they plotted how they could best take advantage of [he services the other had to offer. A decision was reached and they decided to buy a PhenLx City night club. At first they considered buying the Hi-Lo Club from Ernest Young- blood but for reasons best known to themselves, rhey didn't go through with the deal. Instead, they purchased the Conon Club, a Negro night spot which specialized in gambling and slot machines. As assistant chief of the police department, Buddy could guarantee there would be no raids and no interference. The importance of this detail could not be overlooked. Profits of the club would be greater for the owners because they would not have to pay protection money. Profits also would climb if the customers knew they could gamble at the Cotton Club with complete immunity from the law. This partnership witii Buddy was Fanny's greatest personal 92 Phenix City rriumph. Froni a fourteen dollar a week B-gir! to a club owner w^s a gfrari tying acconiplislinieiu. Fanny now could Ijegin living in the manner co which she long had wanted to become accustomed. She acquired a com- fortable home with air-conditioning units scattered through- out. She wore diamonds and she drove a 1954 Oidsmobile. All this ^nd several lovers to boot. What more could a girl ask? Chance seemed to be the one spark of true love Fanny let bum in her ovvn bosom. All the rest of the men, she played for what she could get out of them: a house, an allotment check, protection in the rackets. With Chance, matte ts were different. She didn't bleed him. Time and again she cautioned him in her letters to do nothing foolish because he was the real love of her life. Re- gardless of what else i.s believed about Fanny, this alone must have been the undisputed truth. For Fanny, the girl who took all and gave only of herself in return, her relationship with Chance was novel. Chance was a shrewd individual who wrapped himself in an air of mystery. Major Acton— to learn more of Fanny's background— flew to Maxwell Field to visit Chance, where he was in federal detention, on Labor Day, 1954, Chance wasn't talking. *'Why should I?" he asked Acton. 'There's nothing in it for me. What have 1 got to gain? I'm a nv^n with a number." And he didn't talk, not a word did he utter about his connections with the Queen of Hearts, or anyone else. Chance seemed to be afraid of something or somebody. While he was in Las Vegas he wrote Ffinny he was going to get iiimself jailed by the government. He went to a post office and, in the presence of witnesses, tossed a brick through a glass window. Sure enough, Chance \i'as arrested and sent- enced to a year and a day, but the judge thwarted him by putting him on probation. Chance had taken a gamble and lost. Not content, he vjolated his probation and was locked up at Atontgomery, satisfied and happy, according to Acton. As one of the brightest female lights in a city where too The QiTEEN or Hearts 93 many women walked in the shadows, the Queen of Hearts was bound to be discovered during the National Guard clean-up. She was arrested on charges of possessing a gambling table, possessing slot machines, operating a public tavern and know- ingly operating a gaming table there. Her racket partner, IJuddy Jowers, loaded himself into a vehicle one dark night and left Fanny to furnish her own protection in the future. Fanny soon took the hint. She shook the dust of Phenbc City Out of her hemlines and headed for parts unknown. Guards- men said the}' knew where she was, perhaps by keeping check on her three children in Mississippi; ^nd that's where they apprehended her later. She was fined and sentenced to a year in jail. If Guardsmen hadn't known her whereabouts, they would have had a good idea where to look: around a mihtary post. If you sec her, soldier, she's getting a little worn now. You can bet she'll try at one more fling before she descends to slinging hash or liquor. The Queen was sexy when younger. She's a brunette, about five feet four inches tall and weighs one hundred and twenty pounds in the nude. Who knows? She may he the woman beside you as you read this.